Malala Yousafzai Gets Amnesty’s Top Honor

A portrait of Malala Yousafzai at the National Portrait Gallery in London, in a photo from Sept 10.

Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani schoolgirl who survived an assassination attempt by a Taliban gunman last year, has been named as the recipient of Amnesty International’s highest award.

The 16-year-old education rights campaigner will receive Amnesty International’s Ambassador of Conscience Award along with American singer and human rights activist Harry Belafonte at ceremony Tuesday evening in Dublin, Ireland.

U.K.-based Amnesty International said the award recognizes individuals who have promoted and enhanced the cause of human rights. “Our two new Ambassadors of Conscience are different from each other in many ways, but they share a dedication to the fight for human rights everywhere and for all,” Amnesty International’s secretary general Salil Shetty said in a statement.

Bono, the frontman of Irish band U2, will present the award to Ms. Yousafzai, while Mr. Belafonte will receive his from Roger Waters of the British band Pink Floyd.

Mr. Belafonte, 86, said he was especially honored to have the distinction of sharing the award with Ms. Yousafzai, who he described as a true hero of our time.

“My admiration for her is unending. She has awakened many in the global family to a commitment in struggle against tyranny. For all this I remain eternally grateful,” he was quoted as saying in the Amnesty International statement.

Ms. Yousafzai is now no stranger to awards ceremonies and high profile gatherings, a stark contrast to her situation less than a year ago, when she was fighting for life after being shot in the head as she returned from school in Pakistan.

She had written a diary for BBC Urdu about life in the Swat valley under the Taliban and its crackdown on girls’ education. She wrote under a pseudonym and the diary was published from January to March 2009, but her identity became known as her profile as an activist grew.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for shooting her, saying her writings were provocative and an attempt to smear efforts to establish an Islamic system in Swat.

After the shooting in October, Ms. Yousafzai was flown to the U.K. for treatment at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham. She made her first public appearance on July 12, her 16th birthday, when she delivered a speech at the United Nations General Assembly in New York. The U.N. declared it “Malala Day.”

In Tuesday’s statement, Ms. Yousafzai reiterated her call for universal education. “I am truly honoured to receive this award and would like to take the opportunity to remind everyone that there are many millions of children like me across the world who fight every day for their right to go to school.”

Child rights organization Plan International says around 57 million primary school aged children around the world aren’t in school. Of that total, 30 million are girls. According to the United Nations, more than 120 million people aged 15 to 24 lack basic reading and writing skills.

Past winners of Amnesty International’s Ambassadors of Conscience Award are Czech playwright, Vaclav Havel in 2003, Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland, and Guatemalan lawyer and women’s rights campaigner Hilda Morales Trujillo in 2004, U2 and that band’s manager Paul McGuinness in 2005, former South African president Nelson Mandela in 2006, British musician Peter Gabriel in 2008 and most recently leader of the opposition National League for Democracy in Myanmar, Aung San Suu Kyi.

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